Were have all the good children's programs gone.

[Brushfire]

I will say that the zany antics were a staple of the old Looney Tunes, but I too have noticed the decline in coherent plot. I blame the internet on this one. If you notice that most web comics have no plot. They are just there doing random things that are usally forgotten just as fast as they are delivered. It's not necessarally a bad thing (see Homestar Runner).

[Schwaltzvald]

On Samurai Jack:

The plots of individual episodes range from dark and epic to light-hearted and comic, but typically follow Jack in his singular quest to find a method of traveling back in time. Many of the battle scenes in the series are reminiscent of samurai films, and since Jack's robotic enemies "bleed" oil or electricity and mutations/aliens bleed slime or goo, the series is able to exhibit the action of these films while avoiding censorship for violence.

Samurai Jack can currently be viewed by American residents via the Toonami Jetstream website,[1] and at 11:00pm on Cartoon Network too in the UK. Production on the show was halted in 2004, although it was never officially canceled. Tartakovsky has announced plans to direct a theatrical film, but whether or not this will be used to resolve the series has yet to be announced.

= = =

There had been plans for a Samurai Jack movie that were in development in 2002. This project was cancelled after the lackluster performance of The Powerpuff Girls Movie. In a September 28, 2006 interview with MTV.com, series creator Genndy Tartakovsky confirmed that "Jack will come back" and that "we will finish the story, and there will be an animated film."

It is also stated on the inside jacket of the Season 4 DVD that Genndy still thinks the best way to finish off the story is to do a feature-length movie, and goes on to state that this will hopefully be in the "near future".

Newly formed production company Frederator Films has announced in Variety that one of their first projects will be a feature film adaptation of Samurai Jack, written and directed by Genndy Tartakovsky. ~Wikipedia

As for Invader Zim, from what I've heard, parents complained alot as "it had alot of subversive content, including condemnation of humanity". I don't know what got them BAWWWWWWWING and whining about it to get it kicked off... Any one with a reliable source is welcomed to fill in the gaps

[yangfeili]

I will say that the zany antics were a staple of the old Looney Tunes, but I too have noticed the decline in coherent plot.

Yeah, I actually didn't like Looney Tunes much either as a kid. I always saw it as "the boring cartoons" when it came on.

One funny thing, a lot of people--myself included--rant against the excessive anime influence in modern cartoons, but one of the shows I would most like to see come to DVD is "Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics" which used to be on Nickelodeon... and was all done by a Japanese animation company. (But it was that more subdued oldschool late 80s/early 90s variety of anime, which I tend to like a lot more than the all-out-eXtreme tone they aim for these days.)

[Broken]

Hey, I like Avatar and Teen Titans . I agree that lots of American animation steals from the Japanese animation scene now, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. A lot of the anime I've seen lately has had amazing production values (Ghost in the Shell, Death Note, Afro Samurai, etc.) However, I like it much more when a cartoon has its own individual quirkiness and ideas rather than trying to imitate other shows.

That said, Duck Tales and Swat Katz are still pretty good for how old they are.

[HalcyonSpirit]

Swat Katz

Yes. For the love of humanity, YES.

Thank you.

Also, I'm glad to hear that there's a good chance of getting a conclusion to Samurai Jack. It isn't a continuation of TV episodes, but it's better than nothing. I would love to have the TV episodes continued for a little while longer and THEN hit the movie.

[Brushfire]

Wow. See that is the kind of quaility I'm talking about. I thought to myself how radical it would be to have a jet that fought all kinds of super villians. The only thing that ever bugged bout that show was the name. I thought SWAT was a type of police force that stormed buildings on foot, not in a super top secret multi-billion dollar plane with an unlimited payload of missiles.

[FiremanJoe]

I'm a big fan of Rocko; managed to find a good torrent site with heaps of great kids shows available for download (Rocko included) I'm probably not allowed to post the link, so if you're interested just pm me.

I recently snagged the entire Wile E Coyote series off Demonoid too... now there's something that doesn't go out of style!

[Fenrir]

Yeah, I actually didn't like Looney Tunes much either as a kid. I always saw it as "the boring cartoons" when it came on.

One funny thing, a lot of people--myself included--rant against the excessive anime influence in modern cartoons, but one of the shows I would most like to see come to DVD is "Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics" which used to be on Nickelodeon... and was all done by a Japanese animation company. (But it was that more subdued oldschool late 80s/early 90s variety of anime, which I tend to like a lot more than the all-out-eXtreme tone they aim for these days.)

Holy shit, I'm glad I'm not the only one who remembers those! My grandmother had a video with a bunch of them, but I can't seem to find out anything about them, no matter how hard I look

[Schwaltzvald]

Holy shit, I'm glad I'm not the only one who remembers those! My grandmother had a video with a bunch of them, but I can't seem to find out anything about them, no matter how hard I look

Watched them way back when I stayed home from being too sick to go to school to inbetween summer days.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimm's_Fairy_Tale_Classics

I don't suppose you've check this out..?

Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics is the edition released by Saban of Gurimu Meisaku Gekijou (グリム名作劇場, Grimm Masterpiece Theatre?) an anime series produced by Nippon Animation. It was originally broadcast in Japan from 21 October 1987 to 30 March 1988. The cartoon was localized for a Western audience by Saban Entertainment and broadcast in the United States on the Nickelodeon TV channel from 1989 to 1995.

The second season of the series - titled Shin Gurimu Meisaku Gekijou (新グリム名作劇場, New Grimm Masterpiece Theatre?) in Japan - aired between 2 October 1988 and 26 March 1989. It was also localized under the series' English name.

Did you want to know the stories specifically rather than the show in general?